Le Charivari

Two years after the founding of the illustrated newspaper LA CARICATURE, CHARLES PHILIPON (1800-1862), introduced a new publication (in Dec. 1832), which was to appear daily: LE CHARIVARI. With this paper he aimed at larger circulation numbers in order to reduce his risk with LA CARICATURE .

The word CHARIVARI can be traced back to the 17th century, when Italian artist A. CARACCI drew so-called âritratti caricatiâ, absurd portraits and figures, literally translated: overloaded portraits. The Italian word âcaricareâ has its counterpart in the French word âchargerâ (engl. âloadâ). We can assume that the name CHARIVARI is based on these roots. Later, the word became part of the French language and had the meaning of loud and unmelodious cacophony.

An additional explanation for the word Charivari can be found in the Greek âKarebariaâ, synonym for a headache based on loud disharmonic music from instruments, not necessarily of a musical background, such a pans, pots etc. Such âmusicâ was presented as a serenade in the 18th century to elder men who married a young woman or vice versa. In France citizens expressed their discontent about elected politicians around the beginning of the 19th century by serenading them with such infernal presentations. A beautiful example of such a performance can be found in Daumierâs print DR 5033. Nowadays, a similar kind of Charivari-music is performed under the name of a âGuggemusikâ during Carnival season in Basle, Switzerland. Some of the traditional âmusicalâ groups are hundreds of years old and still carry the name Charivari today.

The VOCABULAIRE DES ENFANTS, DICTIONNAIRE PITTORESQUE, PARIS CHEZ AUBERT, MARCHAND D'ESTAMPES, ĂDITEUR, 1839 defines "Charivari" as riotous noise from pots, pans etc. accompanied by cries and shouts that were made in front of houses of widows and old women who remarried. There also exists a French verb: Charivariser, which means: giving a charivari to somebody.

LE CHARIVARI appeared first in December 1832 with Philipon as editor . It consisted of four pages (36 x 26 cm). An advertisement of the CHARIVARI announced that the paper published every day a new lithograph, unless it was prohibited by censorship... The format was enlarged in 1837 and again in 1858. Unlike in LA CARICATURE, the caricatures were printed directly on page 3 of each issue, therefore with text au verso. This complicated the printing process, requiring one step for the written text and another one for the illustration.

DAUMIERâs contribution to the success of LE CHARIVARI was immense: During 40 years he delivered around 3â900 lithographs and hundreds of wood engravings. His first one appeared â unknown to many- on 15.12.1832 (DR 23), however his major regular oeuvre for the CHARIVARI started with DR 136 on January 24, 1833. His last print for the CHARIVARI was executed as DR 3946 on 18.12.1875. Each week he received between 3 and 5 lithographic stones from the CHARIVARI. Due to the character of the illustrations, he had to work fast. He drew onto the stone directly and very often numbered the stones for reference. The finished stone was delivered to the printer who made 2 to 3 prints: one was used for quality control and sometimes for DAUMIER to suggest corrections, the other one was for the text editor who had to make up a suitable text. From that version a new print was done carrying the âbon Ă tirerâ (pass for press). At critical times this version had to be approved by the censor who gave his comment âyesâ or ânoâ the same day. Only then the printing process could start. The lithographic stones were usually stored for a certain time. This way it was possible to edit special editions from the most successful prints at a later stage. Then the stones were erased, cleaned and prepared for a new procedure.

For the collector of today it may be interesting to know that the Charivari Office occasionally offered complete, bound back numbers of the Charivari at special sales prices. In the advertisement section of DR 1577 an entire collection from 1838 to 1843 is being offered at the special price of 150 Francs. Each volume containing 6 months of publication was alternatively available at 15 Francs per album.

See here a list of the different headers of the Charivari from 1832 to the end of the 19th century courtesy of the website "caricatures&caricature".

The way the original Charivari prints were transferred to Brussels seems to allow some thoughts for speculation. The fact remains that an original Charivari was transported to Brussels, where its editorial section was used without important changes, while the advertisement part was adjusted and specifically printed to satisfy the Belgian readership. You will notice an add for âfrituresâ in the section photographed below.

From a copyright angle it seems amazing that a local artist was asked by the management of the Charivari Belge to copy the original lithographic print from the Paris paper for the Belgian version. Daumierâs lithographs as well as prints by his colleagues Cham, Vernier etc. were thus regularly reproduced, even the monogram or signature of the respective artist was occasionally copied. We have not yet been able to confirm whether the editors of the Charivari Belge copied their French counterpart with full approval of the Paris editors ( M. Augustini), or whether we experience here an early case of copyright infringement. From a technical point of view it would have been quite easy for the French editor ( Aubert at that time) to produce a transfer lithograph from the original stone, which the Belgians could have used for reproduction, without going to the trouble of copying from a printed newspaper edition.

In the literature about the Charivari Belge it is frequently noted that the import of the Belgian version to France was strictly prohibited and samples of the paper confiscated by French authorities at the border. Could it be that the Belgian version, which was sold 2 to 3 times cheaper than the French edition, was sold clandestinely in the north-eastern provinces of France, thus damaging the subscription of the Paris Charivari in this region? An argument one encounters occasionally states that the French editor purposely sent lithographs of politically dangerous subjects to have them published in Belgium. It can hardly be supported, since most of the prints in the Belgian edition were entirely apolitical and had been published in France already five days earlier without having encountered any confrontation with the censorship office.

We must therefore assume that the Charivari Belge was most likely a non authorized edition. The Daumier lithographs cannot be considered being of the same âoriginalâ quality as the ones published in Paris. Similar to the technique of a wood engraving, a second artist copied and thereby re-interpreted the original drawing of the master. Consequently the Belgian âDaumiersâ are inferior and not original, printed furthermore on thin low quality newspaper. However, in order to facilitate the information access for the Daumier collector, we have added a new state to the Daumier Register (the new digital work catalogue soon to be published), indicating specifically the Belgian version. We hope to help the inexperienced collector to more easily identify the copy from the original and we invite the museums to screen the above Delteil numbers in their collections.

It may be of interest to note that the Charivari Belge prints have become extremely rare and are quite difficult to find on the market, while the matching originals from the Paris version are still easily available.

DR 2201 - French Charivari

DR 2201 - Charivari Belge

DR 2154 - French Charivari

DR 2154 - Charivari Belge

London Charivari

In addition to the Belgian Charivari, there existed the LONDON CHARIVARI, âPUNCHâ, published in London in 1841. The English engraver, Ebenezer Landells, together with Henry Mayhew, used Le Charivari as the model for their Punch magazine subtitled âThe London Charivariâ. The first edition was produced on July 17, 1841. The name was changed to PUNCH already for the second edition.

German Charivari

Between 1842 and 1851 a small German version was published under the name Charivari by E. M. Oettinger, which however was of no artistic importance.

According to an article in the Charivari dated May 26, 1847 (DR 1605) there existed a Charivari in the German city of BREMEN. Both editors of the paper were arrested by the Prussian authorities, although Bremen enjoyed the status of a âfree townâ (Freie Hansestadt). Unfortunately we were not able to find a sample of this short-lived edition.

Le Charivari Vaudois

In 1839 after the first appearance of the Charivari Suisse, another publication was issued in Lausanne under the name âLe Charivari Vaudoisâ. Design and lay-out were similar to the French and Swiss edition. We are showing here the first edition. To see additional examples of the Lausanne version, please go to the following link: